Montgomery County’s goal to declare the winners of Tuesday’s primary election is Aug. 12, more than three weeks after voting ends.
Gov. Larry Hogan vetoed a bill that would have allowed election workers to begin counting write-in votes as they were sent in. Instead, election workers will only begin counting those ballots starting Thursday, two days after the primary.
Maryland is the only state in the country that forbids counting mail in ballots early, State Sen. Cheryl Kagan said.
More than 500,000 residents requested mail in ballots. Therefore, the results of any close races will not be known until about mid-August, and because Montgomery County is the most populated county in the state, it could slow the results for the governor’s race as well as local races.
“That’s a really long time from now,” said Kagan. “We have a bit of a hot mess.”
Kagan predicted that Maryland will be “a laughing stock nationally,” and she is concerned that some will say “‘Oh, there is fraud going on.'”
